Diedra’s Different Outlook- Part ll

The color of love.

Club Creative Studio introduced you to my neighbor, Diedra in yesterday’s post.  Today I am thankful for having pride in knowing my creative-out-of-the-box-thinking neighbor. Who would not want to know more about how a creative person thinks?  Fitting for the Two-Cent Tuesday theme, I want to show you how the love of one color can have a cost-effective impact. Diedra’s favorite color in her own words is: “The color Peacock”.  It is actually the love of the color turqoise that has her racing to her paint and brush very often.  This interest in painting almost any thing and every thing has also expressed a sense of creative frugality.

Pursuaded by paint of a peacock-color, the rugs, pillows, furniture, and floor reflect that favorite hue.

It isn’t everyday that you can go out into the world and purchase turquoise painted furniture, a statue, flooring, a mailbox or  lawn ornaments.  This is a low-cost way to get that into your world by simply and inexpensively painting an item the way that you want it to look , yourself.  And why not? If you want to love something even more, find a way to make it attractive to you.  Diedra loves “peacock” so she paints many items with that color to reflect what attracts her taste.  You’ll see plenty of turquoise, purple and blue here. Nuff said.

At night- purple lights are scattered here and there in her garden areas.

You are free to consider this decorating style “quirky” but, it is certainly also “cohesive”.

Plenty of turquoise, purple and blue hues here.

Lending to the expressions of the colors purple, blue and turquoise is the personality and spunk of Diedra herself.

Meet Diedra, even her turquoise car has a creative touch.

When asked about the reasoning behind the attached flowers on her automobile roof and back window she responded with her logic. “I go out in the car and park in the parking lots and when I come out of stores I always think that someone has stolen my car because it seems to be parked in between the big SUVs and I can not see it quickly.  So, I put the flowers on top so I could spot it faster. Plus being short, I can see it better over the bigger cars.” Sounds good to me! She went on to add, “I used to change the flowers with the seasons and holidays but, that got to be a bit much.”

Visit the blog again for the continued multi-post series

sharing more of Diedra’s featured creative whims.

From “Junk” To Jewerly

Club Creative Studio loves an artistic challenge.

Looking at items in a different way opens doors to creative thinking and possibilities.  Yesterday on my way home from a run, I found a few unrelated yet wonderful items that I just knew I could combine and connect in some manner.  It seems that if I can’t make jewelry from items, I want to at least do something else creative with it. I picked these items off the street as misplaced “junk” and knew that with a little TLC, it could be turned into jewelry.  As I looked at the findings for a split second,  I knew EXACTLY what I wanted to try using the old discarded metal spoon and the glass heart fob.

I thought this project topic would make a great TWO-CENT TUESDAY post since the found components were very low-cost… FREE from my discovery. As soon as I picked up the items I thought: “Finders…Keepers”, what a lucky day for me to have an opportunity to turn junk into jewelry. Although they were random items to find on a street, I thought that  I found real TREASURES!  And FREE to boot!

Finding materials that are uncommon or are actually considered to be “found” objects are great because you can’t beat FREE! Plus, it pushes your imagination to be creative.  To put strange and unrelated items together is the ultimate challenge to figure out how to take something low-cost and turn it into something of actual worth or visual value to someone.

Looking at a spoon and a glass fob like these, would you know what you would initially do with them to transform them into a new and useful item?  Happily, I share what I did as I envisioned using these items to make another unique one-of-a-kind jewelry art piece.  What do you think of stage two?  I added wire and glass beads to the end section of the spoon.

with a few more additions, I was able to complete my necklace.  Using red and white hand-rolled clay beads, additional glass beads, a few formed glass heart beads and silver-tone findings and charms, the necklace is now a unique item.  Let me know what you think!

Whenever I am asked to create a custom piece, I love the challenge just as I enjoyed bringing this vision to life.  For more creative creations visit the website or drop me a line to let me know your specific jewelry needs. It’s always a thrill to create from recycled or found objects so I welcome your challenges.

http://www.clubcreativestudio.com

Plastic Painting Project Part ll

Let us show you what we did with our empty plastic bottles.

Club Creative Studio offers part two of the creative process from the latest mother/daughter project. Part one shared the beginning stages of the painted canvas and gave a hint of the mixed media added: the recycled melted plastic bottles.  In today’s post we will reveal the final outcome and share the process of how you can also create the flower sections.

This project will be an ongoing project that we will continue to build upon as we add more and more recycled sections to the over-all project.  We will add more melted flowers as we obtain additional bottles by which to recycle.

Club Creative Studio recycled and melted plastic bottles were transformed into flowers and added to the painted canvas.

This is what you need to begin:

With your empty and clean plastic soda or water bottle, use scissors to carefully punch and cut along the line that is already found across the bottom design of the bottle.

This is what the cut portion will look like when you have cut around the entire bottom of the plastic container.

Cutting the “petals” can be done in a variety of ways keeping in mind that you want to cut portions that mimic the natural forms of flower petals.  Your initial petal cuts can be made by cutting along the indention of the bottom of the plastic container.

Experiment with round cut and fringe cut ends.

To start the melting process you need a craft heat gun, your pre-cut plastic sections, pliers, a heat-resistant area (outdoors is a well ventilated area), a protected work surface (like a tin liner or cookie sheet),  and a mask that protects from vapors.

It does not take long to melt the cut plastic so you will be moving the heat gun around fast and not long at all. I made a short video on the Facebook page that you can review which will  demonstrate just how quickly this is done. http://www.facebook.com/ClubCreativeStudio

STEP FIVE: THE MELTING PROCESS

This is the above item after I have melted and formed it with the heat gun.

Club Creative Studio’s fringe-cut plastic bottle melted to form a flower shape.

Adding color to the plastic is easily done by dabbing alcohol ink colorants to the plastic.

Cranberry ink added to plastic form.

Adding Club Creative Studio hand-made clay beads completes my floral blooms.

The “Mother-Daughter Project” continues as we add more melted bottle blooms. The goal is to cover the canvas at some point for a complete look.

Thursday’s TNT (This-N-That) post will highlight all of the creativity quotes used in this project.  Check back for the creative inspiration they provide.

Related articles

• Plastic Painting Project Part l (clubcreativestudio.wordpress.com)

Plastic Painting Project Part l

Daughter’s contribution: acrylic painted background.

Club Creative Studio art has a main focus on bead-making, jewelry making and using hand-made clay and glass beads in interesting ways. But, because creativity is limited only to one’s imagination, it is natural that other materials take center stage from time to time.  This post informs you of a group project using mixed media on a painted canvas.

Exploring the uses of a variety of supplies opens your mind to new techniques and use of materials. Sometimes the most unconventional materials used, make a project extra interesting. There is a growth and a new-found appreciation to be found in using new materials. In our mother/daughter art project we used primed canvas, acrylic paint, permanent markers in black and metallic silver, heavy gel gloss medium, recycled plastic soda bottles, ink and hand-made polymer clay beads.

This post is part one of a two part explaination of what we created as our group project.

Many enjoy the challenges of recycling. There is also the thrill to know that you have not only helped develop a creative mode but, you have used throw-away objects in a new and exciting way.

Recently my daughter and I joined forces to create an inspirational painting for the new studio space of Club Creative Studio. I knew that I wanted to incorporate many texts within our canvas because I love being inspired by creative quotes. And my daughter knew that she could contribute by painting the background of the canvas for me to use as a colorful backdrop for whatever was developed on top.  To begin we set up the easel and let her go with the flow for the painted background portion.

acrylic painting swirls of color help create the feeling of movement.

Next, we added the quotes about creativity throughout the entire canvas, using permanent markers and varied the are thickness and font style of each quote applied.  Glossing over the entire surface, we added protection and a slight sheen to the canvas surface. Adding a gloss seems to also intensify the paint tints too so it is a double pleasure to use it.

Inspired by quotes about CREATIVITY.

Finally, we added some unexpected elements by adding recycled and melted plastic bottle flowers, with a hand-made polymer clay bead for each center bloom on the canvas.

Melted plastic bottle formed to be a flower bloom.

Follow this blog post on Two-Cent Tuesday for Part ll of this Plastic Painting Project. I’ll show the completed creation and explain how we made the recycled plastic bottle blooms.

Related articles

• Breakthrough in mixed plastics recycling as new plant opens – Rebecca Smithers (greenerscience.wordpress.com)